1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the remote detection of buried objects and. more specifically, to a technique for passively detecting the presence and location of an underground object. The invention includes a simultaneous multibeam architecture which provides high sensitivity, high resolution, wide area coverage and the frequency domain processing of passive broadband radiometric signals attributable to subterranean objects. A multi-dimensional target characterization vector array is computed and utilized to spatially locate the target object in terms of its surface location and estimated depth.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The following U.S. patents are generally indicative of the prior art at the time the invention was conceived and disclose various systems for remotely detecting buried objects using Fast Fourier Transforms:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor(s) Issued ______________________________________ 5,499,029 Bashforth et al. 03/12/96 5,446,461 Frazier 08/29/95 5,357,253 Van Etten et al. 10/18/94 5,339,080 Steinway et al. 08/16/94 5,325,095 Vadnais et al. 06/28/94 4,843,597 Gjessing et al. 06/27/89 ______________________________________
The following references disclose various ground penetrating radar systems.
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor(s) Issued ______________________________________ 5,673,050 Moussally et al. 09/30/97 5,248,975 Schatz 09/28/93 4,905,008 Kawano et al. 02/27/90 4,728,897 Gunton 03/01/88 3,903,520 Shostak 09/02/75 ______________________________________
All of the cited references cited pertain to conventional radar systems. Specifically, they all utilize a radar transmitter as a source of illuminating energy. This artificially generated energy is directed towards the target and is eventually reflected by the buried object(s) under study.
It was with knowledge of the foregoing state of the technology that the present invention has been conceived and is now reduced to practice.